Charging a country-based charity group with indulging in fund-raising for banned LTTE, the US slapped sanctions on the Tamil Foundation, prohibiting nationals from engaging in any transaction with it.

Charging a country-based charity group with indulging in fund-raising for banned LTTE, the United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on the Tamil Foundation, prohibiting nationals from engaging in any transaction with it.

The Foundation has been designated under "Executive Order 13224", which "targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism," the US Department of Treasury said in a press statement.

The foundation is accused of raising money in the US in the name of charities, which ultimately ended up in the hands of LTTE.

The Foundation is headed by an individual, who is also the president of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), which was designated as a terrorist organization on November 15, 2007, the statement said.

"The LTTE, like other terrorist groups, has relied on so-called charities to raise funds and advance its violent aims," said Adam J Szubin, Director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

"We will continue to aggressively target attempts by any terrorist group to hide behind charities, front companies, or name changes to propagate terror against innocents around the world," he said in a statement.

The Treasury Department alleged during the past several years, the Tamil Foundation and TRO have co-mingled funds and carried out coordinated financial actions.

Additional information links the Tamil Foundation to TRO through a matching gift programme. The common leadership of the TRO and the Tamil Foundation has facilitated these activities, it said.